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February 8, 2002 - Robert Pickton
Wayne Leng, in his grassroots search for Sarah deVries, set up a hotline for tips, which in 1998 recieved a call from a man calling himself "Bill" who said Sarah was dead. "This man who couldn't give me any more identity than Bill told me a prostitute he knew had been taken to a big pig farm at Port Coquitlam, where she had been badly assaulted," Leng said. "What's more, the prostitute had told Bill she had seen numerous items of women's clothing and pieces of women's ID all over the place." Leng recieved several other tips about a dangerous farmer called "Willy" which he passed on to the Vancouver police department and never heard about again.
"We were all concerned because it didn't seem anybody wanted to take this guy seriously," said Leng. "We never heard whether they actually did searches of Willy's place or whatever. You know. But we knew he had lots of land and he was fairly well off it seems."
In another Port Coquitlam property dubbed "Piggy's Palace," Pickton and his brother David threw several large parties and had what would constitute as an illegal bar. In 1996 the city of Port Coquitlam went to court seeking an order against the brothers and their "Piggy Palace Good Times Society" to bar them from holding any more parties on the property. In an affidavit filed with the court in 1998, Port Coquitlam Fire Chief Randy Shaw said he toured the property with David Pickton in September 1998 and found a building there that appeared to be a dance hall. "I observed a commercial type kitchen, pub type bar, raised entertainment stage, dance floor, sound and lighting system and tables and chairs capable of accommodating a group in excess of 150 persons," the affidavit stated.
The Picktons brothers, together with their sister, Linda L. Wright, own several more properties in the Port Coquitlam and Maple Ridge area worth millions of dollars. Pickton, who goes by the name of 'Willy,' has been considered a prson of interest in the investigation since July 1998 when investigators received a tip that a woman had been inside Pickton's trailer and had seen bags of bloody clothing as well as women's identification. |
